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Cindy Williams may have put a crazy amount of hours into crafting this Dragon out of Paper Mache, but man, looking at that thing? Totally worth it. Cindy took over 400 hours to craft the Dragon over the course of 8 months as a way to ease herself back into making Paper Mache creations after…
In amongst the new features ushered in with Android KitKat was a screencasting capability—a native tool for capturing on-screen activity in a video file. Whether you want to show off your app, share your Angry Birds prowess or start a series of Android troubleshooting videos, it’s not difficult to get the functionality up and running,…
Yesterday we learned that Norway had chosen a new design for its banknotes—a pixelated little number by the architects at Snøhetta. While their design is tasteful and restrained, it can’t possibly live up to the charm of sea life drawn by kids. Which was exactly what one designer proposed. The competition held by the Norse…
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day is this view of the October 8 lunar eclipse taken by Yuri Beletsky at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. The shadow of the Earth cutting through, the glow, the misty sea that fades into the sky itself—so otherworldly and ethereal. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us…
Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne would feel at home inside DARPA’sGXV-T missile-dodging superbuggy. This video shows how the Pentagon’s research arm wants the cockpit to be: Closed, with high-definition touch screens providing wide-angle visibility and displaying combat information in augmented reality. It’s really impressive. A closed cockpit that would use visualization technologies to provide high-definition,…
The Guardian is reporting that Lego will not renew the US$100m marketing contract with Shell, which has existed since 1966, after sustained pressure from Greenpeace. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, the Cheif Executive of Lego commented: We continuously consider many different ways of how to deliver on our promise of bringing creative play to more children. We…
Transparent, the first truly good Amazon original series, just got renewed for a second season. The series chronicles Jeffrey Tambor’s late-in-life gender transition, and it is excellent. [h/t @KateAurthur]
Last night, David Letterman’s musical guest was an enormously popular Japanese pop star who has opened for Lady Gaga and racked up an estimated 88 million views on YouTube. She performed her song “Sharing the World.” She is also not human. She’s also a vocal synthesizer software with no corporeal form, the VR personification of…
Shoot, it used to be you’d have a whole team of iRobot robots, to man your factory or diffuse your explosives, but each one required its own joystick controller. That’s a lot to carry for a robot operator. But not anymore! Now iRobot has one Android app to man all its defense and security bots.…
The staple-free stapler isn’t a new idea; they’ve been around for decades, locking pages together without the need for tiny metal clips. But older designs use a method where an unsightly hole is punched through your documents, unlike Kokuyo’s clever new Harinacs stapler which simply crimps the corners to keep up to five pages securely…
Greenpeace’s long protest against Lego over its association with Shell seems like it’s finally paid off: Lego have announced that they do not intend to renew their agreement with the energy company when the current deal expires. Greenpeace have been holding Lego-themed protests this year to highlight the brand’s association with Shell and to protest…
Earlier this week we reported on the photograph that won this year’s Arcaid Architectural Photography Award for 2014. But it was only one of five award-winning images chosen by the jury—and in some ways, the other entries are even more interesting than the overall winner. Over the past decade or so, architectural photography has gotten…
The guys at Cinefix reviewed some of the most famous horror films in history to try to figure out what is it that makes us enjoy them so much. At first glance, the fact of getting pleasure by being terrified seems uncanny, but apparently there’s a scientific explanation for that behavior and here it is:…
Paris. One of the most beautiful places in the world. They call it the city of light, and, above all, the city of love. I always had a really good time when I visited Paris. It might not be on my top ten cities to go party, but who cares when the food is so…
The desert creates gorgeous structures, and the Eye of the Sahara is no exception. The stunning structure of bare rock peeks out from a sea of sand, forming a beautiful landmark for astronauts overhead. While circular usually means impacts or eruptions, the eye emerged from differential erosion. Top Image: The Richat Structure in Mauritania as…
Underground train lines may be dark and gloomy, but the rolling stock that uses them needn’t be. These sleek autonomous trains are what London plans to ferry its inhabitants in within the next ten years. The New Tube for London trains are the result of a collaboration between design studio PriestmanGoode and Transport for London.…
Some guys—Tom and Ed according to the name of the Youtube channel—just uploaded these two videos where they add their voices to existing moon footage. I hope they continue with the saga because these made me laugh hard. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the much-rumored 12.9-inch iPadis being delayed by Apple because of high demand for the new iPhone 6 Plus. The newspaper claims that, while production of the jumbo tablet was slated to begin in December, Apple isn’t satisfied with the rate at which the iPhone 6 Plus is being…
Now iCloud’s two-step authentication is back up and running, Apple is doing everything it can to keep your data secure. And in the case of apps that don’t support two-factor authentication, that means creating new, unique passwords. If you use software that taps into iCloud but doesn’t support the security world’s favorite two-step process—such as…
Everyone’s favorite way to sext is getting ads. Evan Spiegel, the owner of Snapchat, has explained that untargeted ads are coming to the app “soon.” The Wall Street Journal reports that the ads “will appear within the Snapchat Stories feature,” slotting in among photos and videos shared by users. The advertisements—which will be the first…
